Using the known breast milk pump, simultaneous and gentle sucking from both breasts is achieved, wherein the drive may be effected in an electrical way, e.g. using a battery as a source of energy. Sucking is effected in a cyclic manner at about the natural rhythm of a sucking baby, and cycle periods of both breasts alternate so that the source of energy is not subjected to irregular load. In maximum, the cycle frequency should amount to about 60 per minute, but practice has shown that such a high frequency is difficult to achieve with the known breast milk pump. In addition, in order to avoid synchronizing both valves, the common drive actuates a common valve member which tends to produce a clattering noise at high velocities. This is, not least, to be put down to the fact that an adjustment of the individual valves is hardly possible for which reason the arrangement is relative sensitive to tolerances in production, i.e. too large a tolerance can lead to a situation wherein one valve does not yet close, while the other one is already open, or that there are periods in which both valves close so that the desirable uniform load of the source of energy is not given under all circumstances.
Therefore, it is an object of the invention to avoid at least part of the above disadvantages, and this is achieved, according to the invention, by the characteristic features of with such a breast milk pump.
By the fact that the drive continues to be common, synchronizing the two valves remains unnecessary as up to now. By the fact, however, that a respective valve member is provided, i.e. that the valve members are separated from each other, their inertia is reduced, which reduces also the clattering tendency, while it is easier at the same time to even out production tolerances, e.g. by selecting the separate valve members.
An especially preferred embodiment is described in provided. Such an embodiment reduces the sensitivity to tolerances, on the one hand, leads to improved sealing and, finally, enables also an embodiment according to claim 4.